Going back to warm oatmeal and coffee in the mornings now that I'm back in the apartment

My little forks!

Orchard Skittles, shout out to James and John for their endless supply of Skittles

My Indiana-shaped cutting board, a Christmas gift from Andrew and I can't wait to make fancy charcuterie

A slice of cake with the perfect amount of frosting, like the one that Kelsey and Stephanie made for the Super Bowl

30 Rock on Netflix, and I just wonder why I haven't watched this show earlier in my life

The leftover nacho ingredients Andrew left me from the Super Bowl

And these mini steak pies! I made them for the Super Bowl and I just love their little size. And the filling inside - it's essentially the ingredients of a chicken pot pie, but with steak because that's just very American isn't it?

Ingredients

Hot water crust pastry from Epicurious - note: I would double these ingredients for this recipe!

For the hot water crust pastry (As mentioned up in Ingredients, I would make 2 batches of this for the amount of filling in the recipe)

Cut the butter and shortening into cubes and keep them on a plate cold in the fridge.

In a large bowl, stir the flour and salt together. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. Boil your water on a pot over the stove.

Place the butter and shortening cubes in the center of the well. Pour the boiling water over the butter and shortening and mix the butter and shortening with the hot water with a fork within the well until most of the fat is combined with the water. Then gradually incorporate in the flour until a dough forms.

Take the dough out onto a well floured surface and using well-floured hands, knead the dough until the butter/shortening are well distributed in the dough. Divide the dough into 2 balls and shape the balls into discs. Wrap the discs in cling wrap and place in the fridge for at least 1 hour. Let the dough soften slightly before using it.

For the mini pies (makes 11-12 mini pies, depending on the size of your tins and how well you can keep your dough together)

In a medium bowl, whisk the beer, milk, and beef broth and set aside.

In a large pot, heat up 2 tbsp of olive oil and brown the steak cubes so that they get a good sear. Once seared, remove the beef onto a plate and set aside.

In the same pot you used to sear the beef, add another 2 tbsp of oil and put in the onions. Allow for them to cook for 4 minutes until starting to get soft, then add the garlic and cook for another minute or two. Add the flour to the onions and stir so that the flour coats the onions. The onions will start to look a little mushy. Add the beer-milk-broth mixture to the onions and whisk constantly until it begins to thicken.

Add the carrots, peas, thyme, oregano, and the steak cubes back to the pot and allow the whole thing to simmer, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. Add the Worcestershire sauce and simmer for another couple minutes. Adjust the stew with salt and pepper to taste. Once you're happy with it, turn off the burner and set the stew aside, allowing for it to cool slightly. In the meantime, you can roll out your crust!

Preheat oven to 400 F. Butter/grease your muffin tins/tins/cast iron mini pan. Roll out your pastry crust to 1/4 inch thick, and then cut into circles that will fit your tins so that there will be a slight overhang with each tin. Add two big spoonfuls (about 1/4 cup) of stew into each tin. Top the pies with another circle of pastry dough, and crimp the edges so that you've made little mini pies in the tin. Using a pastry brush, brush the tops of your pies with the egg-milk wash mixture. Poke the tops of the pies with a fork or cut with a knife to allow steam to leave the pie while it's cooking.

Place the pies into the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool, then enjoy with some beer and good company.